The explosion of an electric vehicle's battery sparked a fire that completely destroyed a small auto repair shop located at the intersection of 76th Street and 79th Avenue in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on Wednesday morning.
According to Univision 23, the fire started when the battery of a Hyundai car suddenly exploded, igniting flames that engulfed the business.
One of the mechanics who worked at the shop was almost killed as a result of the explosion and the fire that followed.
The owner of the business was injured and was taken to a hospital for medical attention, although the extent of his injuries was not specified.
The flames threatened to spread to adjacent businesses, but Miami-Dade firefighters arrived on time and managed to control the blaze before it caused greater damage in the area.
The journalist Javier Díaz shared on Facebook a video showing the state of the establishment after the incident and the completely burned vehicle.
"A person is still in the hospital with some burns and this workshop is completely destroyed. According to what I've been told, they were changing the battery when the car began to explode and the firefighters had to come," he said.
"Fortunately, we do not have to mourn the loss of any individuals," he added.
The incident highlights the risks posed by lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles at conventional workshops, especially in light of the phenomenon known as thermal runaway: a chain reaction in which an overheated cell generates extreme heat, releases its own oxygen, and can lead to explosions and fires that are difficult to extinguish.
This process can begin without warning in damaged vehicles, even hours or days after an apparent incident, posing a particular danger to mechanics working without the proper training or specialized equipment.
According to data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States, fires in battery electric vehicles increase by approximately 46% annually in the country, in parallel with the growth of the fleet of this type of cars.
Although the fire rate for electric vehicles is significantly lower than that of gasoline cars—about 25 per 100,000 electric vehicles compared to 1,530 per 100,000 internal combustion vehicles—the severity and difficulty of extinguishing lithium battery fires make them a special risk for unprepared workshops.
Hialeah Gardens, a city in Miami-Dade County with a high concentration of businesses from the Hispanic and Cuban-American community, has been the site of several fires in commercial establishments in recent years.
In March 2024, a Cuban barbershop in Hialeah was destroyed by a fire, and in January 2023, an individual set fire to two trucks of a Cuban business in the same area.
The southern part of Florida also experienced one of the largest fires of the year in the region last March, when a massive fifth-alarm fire swept through a logistics warehouse in Miami-Dade covering about 500,000 square feet, mobilizing over 200 firefighters. The fire was active for several days and the smoke affected air quality in Hialeah Gardens, among other areas in the county.
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